VOA标准英语2012--US Presidential Election Actually 50+ Separate Votes
时间：2019-01-14 作者：英语课 分类：VOA标准英语2012年(十一月)
US Presidential Election Actually 50+ Separate Votes
Election Day is held on the first Tuesday in November in the United States. In each of the 50 states, and in the District of Columbia, there are political offices to fill, ballot 1 questions to resolve, and every four years, the choice of whom to send to the White House.
The United States Constitution is filled with rights and protections for citizens. But as Georgetown University Professor Mark Rom points out, voting is not necessarily one of them.
"One would think that the right to vote is just as much a central right of citizenship 2 as the ability to speak freely, or to worship freely, to petition the government, and so forth 3. But, it is not," said Rom. "Voting requirements are typically established by the states. And, the states, more or less, can use their own standards."
The minimum voting age of 18 is set by U.S. federal law. But Rom says otherwise, there is very little uniformity
"There is a patchwork 4 of 50 different states, with 50 different state laws about the times for voting, the processes for registering to vote, the places where you can vote, how you can vote by absentee ballot. All those details of the elections are established by state law, not by federal law," Rom added.
The absentee ballots 5 that Rom refers to are used by people who are away from home on Election Day - in the military, for instance, or traveling, or away at school.
In recent years, something called "early voting" has also developed. Some two-thirds of the states now allow people to cast their ballots as much as a month or more before the official Election Day in November.
A number of states have now passed laws requiring voters to produce specific photo IDs at their polling place to prove their identities. Advocates of these laws say they are necessary to prevent fraud. Opponents say such fraud is too statistically 6 small to be a problem, and charge the laws are meant suppress voting.
And there's also another way that a U.S. presidential election is really 50 separate contests - according to the Constitution, people voting for president are actually selecting 538 people called "electors" on a state-by-state basis. And it's these people who officially determine who becomes president.
- The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
- The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。
- He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
- Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。
- The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
- He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。
- That proposal is nothing else other than a patchwork.那个建议只是一个大杂烩而已。
- She patched new cloth to the old coat,so It'seemed mere patchwork. 她把新布初到那件旧上衣上，所以那件衣服看上去就象拼凑起来的东西。
- They're counting the ballots. 他们正在计算选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The news of rigged ballots has rubbed off much of the shine of their election victory. 他们操纵选票的消息使他们在选举中获得的胜利大为减色。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The sample of building permits is larger and therefore, statistically satisfying. 建筑许可数的样本比较大，所以统计数据更令人满意。
- The results of each test would have to be statistically independent. 每次试验的结果在统计上必须是独立的。